Low cost Chaos ?

The short answer to your question is no, and I suspect the truth is not very many.

1L.

Thanks OneLeft, I was thought that this would be the case, however, I do remember reading a book about EasyJet, and how they got into trouble over its advertising because it was selling less than 10% of its seats at the price that it quoted on the advert…:confused:

My question is…?

The short answer to your question is no, and I suspect the truth is not very many.

1L.

I wish to ask a question that is related to low-cost airlines, so instead of posting another thread, I hope people dont mind me asking it here…

My question is… I know it is usually a closely guarded secret as to how many seats are sold at the ‘lowest fare’, but are there any set rules on the number of seats that LCC’s have to sell at their lowest price, and if so, how is this expressed (as a % or just a specific no. of available seats?)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It may be possible for all airlines to co-exist within the confines of their planned programmes – I did see that Jet2’s cut backs are on the “marginal profitable” routes – should either easyJet or Ryanair decide to start those routes themselves, it may become “more profitable” given the much higher profile those airlines have within Europe; it may have been a lack of non-UK passengers that caused their demise of Jet2’s operations.

Flybe and bmi/bmibaby co-exist on France as they operate into different airports, and given the frequency that Ryanair will be introducing on routes (up to 4 weekly), they would probably still survive given that in Flybe’s case, their French regional routes are “thin” and bmi/bmibaby’s routes operate near enough daily.

As for Thomsonfly, I don’t envisage them having too many problems either given they are a known brand.

Going into analytical mode now….
In terms of seats, FR with 12 services a week and an estimation of 4.3 weeks for a month, we find 12 services * 2 sectors * 4.3 weeks * 189 seats a sector = 19,500 seats available to fill a month. At a typical Ryanair load of 80%, it still means 15,500 passengers carried. Charter passenger wise, unable to determine available capacity, I’m going off what should be the peak passenger month for charter numbers i.e. August. This year, 1.09 million passengers were on those flights – to go for zero growth in the overall international passenger market (unlikely) with passenger substitution to scheduled services, the biggest hit MAN could take is a 1.75% reduction in the charter figures i.e. each 10,000 charter passenger number reduction is about 1% fall. To lose 50,000 passengers a month means that it would take until the 3rd phase of Ryanair expansion to register growth figures for MAN (all to be taken with a pinch of salt as one trusts other airline’s passenger numbers will grow!).

Across the UK there are some pretty drastic reductions in short haul charter capacity being planned for next summer following the TUI/FCA and MYT/TCX mergers. The size of the charter reductions (between 15 and 30%) are well known but seem to have gone completely unoticed by the various airport fan clubs round the net – strange really considering the general unhealthy interest in passenger numbers as the be all and end all. At MAN or LGW for example, just a 10% reduction in short-haul seats will take about 50,000 passengers out of the system per month. Ryanair’s “massive expansion” at MAN adds about 10,000 per month back in.
Impact on other loco operators is unknown in the short term but no-one in the business is predicting much in the way of overall passenger growth for next summer or winter. If one airline grows rapidly in a certain market it’s inevitable there will be pain felt by the people already operating there.

Jet2 have already annouced there cutting alot of routes from Manchester.